The Egyptian Book of the Dead: A guidebook for the underworld - Tejal Gala

Ancient Egyptians believed that in order to become immortal after death, a spirit must first pass through the underworld — a realm of vast caverns, lakes of fire, and magical gates. Needless to say, one needed to come prepared. But how? Tejal Gala describes an Egyptian "Book of the Dead" -- a customized magic scroll written by the living to promote a smooth passage to the afterlife when they died.

Lesson by Tejal Gala, animation by Silvia Prietov.

[Jader]

Man, dying back then was so complicated.

[dawsonglawe]

Ani: "Yep, totally a good person."
Heart: "What about that time-?"
Scarab: "Snitches get stitches."
Heart: "Nevermind."

[The_Nerd_King]

Everyone else: Rest in Peace
Egypt: start cultivating!🌾

[splatchargermain]

Ani: "MOM! DAD!"
Mom:"Shut up and grow your crops"

[MickeyCuervo]

Judges: "So you're pure of heart, right?"
Soul :"Uhhh... yeah..yeah! Yup, totally. Never even eavesdropped!"
Judges: "What about that time you-"
Scarab: "S'cool guys. He's with me."
Judges: "Aight, fair enough."

[browneyedgirl]

So, in the end, eternity is one big game of FarmVille

[__eivy__]

"Heart, the seat of emotion, memory and intelligence"

Brain: am I a joke to u?

[lawrencechege]

As an environmentalist, ancient Egypt had me at "I did not pollute the river" as a measure to get into the happily ever after.

[hollyleafwell]

"part crocodile, part leopard, part hippopotamus"
Holy cow and I thought the Greeks were bad

[gisforhungry]

i was so obsessed with ancient history as a kid and this just brought me so much throwback childhood happiness plus beautiful graphics

[Tabby_CatMeow]

“Has not made anyone cry”
Onions: *sweats profusely*

[Magnus_Ducatus_Chineva]

"the papyrus of ani lies in a british museum"

*Classic Bri'ish moment*

[danish]

He went through soooo much just to harvest crops??

[HorustheElder]

Love this as an Egyptology student, but with two corrections:

(1) To call it the "Underworld" is probably inaccurate. It's more accurate to refer to it as the "Otherworld", because the Egyptians didn't believe in a heaven above, hell below type deal. Instead it was all the same world, except the Duat was only visible to those who had passed on.

(2) In regards to the weighing of the heart: some canons insist that the heart must weigh the same as the feather, so the illustration of the heart weighing less than the feather doesn't speak true of all interpretations. This is because weighing less then the feather somehow implies you are greater than truth (Maat), which is impossible. You need to therefore be at one with Maat by weighing the same.

I draw this from Garry J. Shaw's "The Egyptian Myths", which I thoroughly recommend to anyone interested in more to do with the Egyptian afterlife and world imagination.

[manmademachnyagnomalac]

"Ani are you ok, are you ok Ani?"



You've been hit by
You've been struck by
A smooth criminal..

[blackhole]

“The heart is the seat of memory, emotion, and intelligence.”

Brain: dafaq

[ilikecake]

These old belief systems are so different from what you'd imagine, first time I've heard of someone working in heaven of all places.

[nuniyoa]

i mean if dying was so complex back then, then no wonder there were people who wanted to be immortal

[LB-lfvv]

Person: *DIES*
A christian : i've lived a good life, now i'll just go to heaven
An egyptian : *i don't now where i am, i don't now where i'm going, , all i know is that I MUST R U N*

[brickwall]

As much as I love watching TED-Ed videos, they failed to mention the growing the crops bit in the afterlife was for the gods. And considering the Egyptians were the most religious people in the ancient world, doing such a thing for their gods would have been considered a great honour.